Haiti’s most dangerous gang leader, Jimmy Chérizier, alias "Barbecue," sent a message to Kenyan police and military on Friday ahead of the deployment.
During a press address, Barbecue declared that he would regard Kenyan police as aggressors and vowed to resist them.
Barbecue labelled the Kenyan police as invaders, asserting that he was not prepared to cooperate with them as he believed they were coming to interfere with Haiti's independence.
“If Kenyan military or police come, whatsoever, I will consider them, aggressors,” the gang leader noted.
“We will consider them as invaders and we do not have to collaborate with any invaders that have come to walk over our independence,” Barbecue stated.
However, the gang leader noted that he was prepared to end the hostilities only if his people were represented in the ongoing establishment of the transition committee.
According to Barbecue, he had received calls for talks for the past three years but had insisted on continuing the conflict until his demands were addressed.
The gang leader vowed to escalate efforts to repel any foreign nation that attempts to intervene in the ongoing battles.
“Every new day that passes we have to come up with a new strategy so that we can advance,” Barbecue stated.
“But there is no calm. In the days that are coming things will get worse than they are right now because as long as they choose not to put everyone on the table for us to talk it is the same system that will regenerate,” the gang leader added.
His sentiments come a week after another gang leader Makandal was killed alongside his accomplices during a fierce shootout with police in Pétion-Ville, a suburb located on the southeastern side of the Caribbean nation.
A report shared by Haiti Police revealed that the gang leader was allegedly killed after city residents joined law enforcement in attacking the gang leader and his associates.
